Hannah’s stairs seem like those in the Escher prints that don’t go anywhere, and that describes this entry in the bunch-of-cool-but-inarticulate-twentysomethings-talking-about-stuff genre that Andrew Bujalski brought to full bloom in Mutual Appreciation. Bujalski has a role (and he wrote the screenplay, with a host of others) in this aimless indulgence from Joe Swanberg (LOL) as one of three slackers seduced and abandoned by Hannah (Ellen DeGeneres look-alike Greta Gerwig). Hannah’s problem: she’s never satisfied. Also, she thinks the world is a bad place because nobody listens to anybody. But then, if you listen to her “ramblings,” she has nothing to say. Nonetheless, certain images, like two people in a tub playing the 1812 Overture on trumpets, are worth the visit.

Mixing it up with Strauss Although the works of German composer Richard Strauss rank among my favorites, it was unfair to give him credit last week for Die Fledermaus .

On top of the Pops If you look up "surreal" in the dictionary, you might find a picture of a full orchestra fronted by five longhairs in tuxes.

Holiday favorites For many of us, the holidays would not be the same without the familiar melodies and musical traditions we’ve grown to love.

Movie music Classical music in 2008 Boston did not get off to a brilliant start.

Is there a pianist in the house? Moved and excited by pianist Leon Fleisher in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Boston Symphony, I wanted to hear it again.

Amazing weekend James Levine’s opening salvo for his year-long Beethoven/Schoenberg series with the Boston Symphony Orchestra couldn’t have been more ambitious: the work that opened Symphony Hall in 1900.

How it's done The problem with the Ninth is that it gets played like a monument.

Codeine Velvet Club | Codeine Velvet Club Like a Glaswegian version of Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner’s Last Shadow Puppets , the Codeine Velvet Club project finds Jon Lawler of the Fratellis making retro-’60s supper-club pop with sweeping orchestral arrangements where the fuzzy guitars usually go.

Unembarrassed riches Some weeks Boston has such musical riches, one wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

A little history Two of Boston's most admired and honored composers (both Pulitzer winners) have just celebrated landmark birthdays: Yehudi Wyner his 80th and John Harbison his 70th.